A man found guilty of killing his ex-client’s lover in Cape Town, and allegedly cut his victim’s heart out to eat part of it, will be sentenced in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.

Andrew Chimboza, 35, had, as part of plea agreement, pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona at the home of a former client last June, after a disagreement.

Manona was his ex-client’s lover, and had apparently accused Chimboza of having sex with his partner.

Manona died from incisions to the upper body and blunt force injuries.

Accounts from three people during sentencing arguments pointed to Chimboza removing Manona’s heart, cutting it up and eating it. No mention of that was made in his plea agreement.

Judge Ashley Binns-Ward was to have sentenced Chimboza in February but ordered that he be admitted for observation.

He wanted a panel to determine whether he was a danger to society and assist him in arriving at an appropriate sentence.

‘Coerced’

On Tuesday, psychiatrist Tuviah Zabow told the court that Chimboza claimed under psychiatric observation that he had been coerced to commit the crime and rip out the victim’s heart.

This was the first time that the court was hearing this version of events.

“Essentially he stated that the deceased’s girlfriend had coerced him to commit the murder. She also demanded that he present her with the deceased’s heart,” Zabow said, reading out the psychiatric report from the witness stand.

“His memory of the period of the offence was good but he declined to explain why he had sliced up the heart and was found eating it.”

Zabow revealed that it was impossible for the panel to say whether he was a danger.

The court heard that Chimboza did not have a history of habitual violence and scored low on rating scales for risk assessment and psychopathy. He also did not have a mental illness.

State prosecutor Jacqueline Sibiya argued that the panel could not exclude that Chimboza was a danger to society, and questioned the manner in which it had arrived at its conclusion.

Chimboza’s lawyer, Yasmine Rajap, asked the court to abide by the panel’s finding. News24